Air India Express plans great packages for crew

In a bid to retain employees and lure more youngsters to join the company, Air India Express would come out with attractive packages for its crew, a top official of the low-cost airline subsidiary of Air India said on Wednesday.

Talking to reporters in Thiruvananthapuram, Capt Pavan Arora, COO, Air India Express said a high level meeting was convened recently to review packages for the crew.

There is a constraint that the economy airline cannot afford to match salary packages on par with foreign airline companies. However, within four months the management would come out with attractive packages for the crew to "retain them and lure more youngsters to join the company," he said.

As of now the airline is facing problems in operating 205 weekly flight services across the country due to the shortage of 84 crew members, he said.

"The total requirement is of 440 crew members and there is a shortage of 84 till date due to superannuation and some resignations," he said.

He said of the 26 aircraft it had earlier, lease agreements have expired for 4 planes.

Arora was here to inaugurate a new engineering store complex. This is the 2nd of its kind next to Mumbai airport and soon a similar facility would be commissioned at Tiruvananthapuram airport, he said.

He said of the 156 compensation cases pending before it of the air mishap in Mangalore on May 22, twenty were settled.